Such a ribbon cassette or such a typewriter or the like are known from German Patent DE-PS 35 44 923, the type of cassette being indicated by means of a coding applied to the same, here in particular in the form of an optical bar code. Optical reading of a code has the disadvantage that to a certain extent there is the possibility of interference by stray light and in particular by dirt.
From German Published Non-Examined Patent Application DE-OS 28 50 378 a type-wheel cassette is known, supplied with a which provides data regarding the content of the cassette. Read-out of the magnetized strip is performed by means of a laterally disposed movable reading head.
In type-wheel cassettes, but also in particular in ribbon cassettes, it is important that a plurality of different types of cassettes can be recognized by means of an automatically readable coding of the cassettes. For example, a so-called single-use ribbon can only be used one time and therefore is advanced by a set distance after each printing step which approximately corresponds to the width of a character. With multiple-print ribbons the advance corresponds to only one half or one third of the width of the character to be printed, therefore the electronically controlled advance depends on the type of ribbon used. Additionally, there is a requirement, for example in banking, of only using indelible ribbons, so that it should also be possible to sense whether the ribbon used is one of that type. If it is not the case, the use of such an unsuitable ribbon cassette must be prevented by the control of the typewriter.